Cuba, US establish historic biotech joint venture

(Source: radiohc.cu) Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., is based in the Mariel Special Development Zone, some 50 km west of the Cuban capital. The joint venture was created between the commercial subsidiaries of two renowned research centers: Cuba’s Molecular Immunology Center and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center of the US. The zone is the island’s major international trade and companies headquartered there operate under separate tax and trade laws to the rest of the country. It will allow for advanced research and development of new cancer drugs, to improve survival rates for thousands of patients. In the first few years, the joint venture will focus on trialling those treatments to demonstrate their safety and efficacy, with the aim of eventually exporting them to the US. The new company plans to manufacture several Cuban developed anti-cancer products, including the CIMAVax-EGF, a known therapy for lung cancer./. Compiled by BTA